Guide · Lead conversion
Why Checkatrade leads stop converting.
If you are paying for leads through Checkatrade or a similar platform and not winning the jobs, the instinct is to blame the leads. The research points somewhere else.
The lead quality question
The leads are probably fine. The timing is not.
When a homeowner submits a quote request through a lead platform, that request typically goes to several firms at once. From that point, it is a race. A 2024 study by Lead Connect found that 78% of customers buy from the business that responds first. The quality of the lead is largely the same for every firm that receives it. What differs is how quickly each firm replies.
MIT and InsideSales research found that responding within five minutes makes a lead 21 times more likely to convert than waiting thirty minutes. After an hour, the Harvard Business Review puts the drop in qualifying odds at around 80%. By the time most trade businesses reply, the homeowner has already had a conversation with someone else.
The structural problem
Leads arrive at the worst possible moments.
The average trade business takes 42 hours to respond to an online enquiry, according to a Harvard Business Review analysis of 2,241 firms. That is not because the business is disorganised. It is because 41% of home improvement enquiries land outside normal working hours, when the tradesperson is on a job, driving, or not checking messages.
A sole trader or small firm is almost never free to reply the moment an enquiry lands. So the leads go to whoever is. The platform is delivering the enquiry. The firm is just not there when it arrives.
The follow-up gap
Most firms only try once.
When a lead does not reply to a first message, most businesses move on. Velocify research found the average rep makes 1.3 contact attempts before giving up. Research on optimal follow-up puts the effective number closer to six. A lead that goes quiet after the first message is not necessarily cold. It is often just waiting for a second knock.
For a trade business paying per lead, the combined effect of slow first response and minimal follow-up means a significant share of what is spent on the platform produces no return, not because the leads are bad, but because the response window closes before it is used.
Stop letting good jobs go cold.
Book a discovery call and we will show you what slow replies are costing your business. It is free, takes about fifteen minutes, and you will see the number before you decide anything.